[pct-l] Letter of the Law

[CMountainDave at aol.com (CMountainDave@aol.com)]

There are rules and then there are rules. 
 A ranger that would cite someone in a motorized wheelchair that has very 
limited access abilities is way overdoing it. It's like citing a kid who picks up 
an ordinary rock to save as a memento of a trip to the Grand Canyon
  Should carts be allowed on the PCT?? I would think that selective 
enforcement should apply: probably not in wilderness areas. Carts aid poachers and its 
kind of hard to tell what the cart is being used for. Other areas? I would 
allow them on a case by case basis
   On another note, mechanized equipment CAN be used in wilderness areas if 
it is used for trail maintenance.  Chain saws are allowed, for instance, in 
Olympic National Park (90% designated as wilderness). I went to a chain saw 
certification class and now I am allowed to operate one for trail maintenance. I 
cut several hundred trees across a trail (Six Ridge) that had been neglected for 
20 years due to budget reasons. 
 They made an exception to the Wilderness act so that they could get the most 
out of their volunteer labor and budget dollars. Using a hand saw (whip saw) 
would have taken hundreds of more hours of labor on the trail I helped clear
   They reconciled an exception to the Wilderness act because it also says 
that foot powered recreation is a primary purpose of wilderness. Therefore 
trails and their maintenance are essential for that purpose. Of course reason, as 
usual, must prevail. Using a bulldozer to build a trail would be outrageous
 David C